Employees are key assets to any organization as they are the ones who put in the extra effort to nudge the organization in achieving its long-term objectives, succeed, and grow. Employees are essentially responsible for serving the organization’s clientele and meeting their expectations. And, thus, employees’ productivity has a direct impact on the organization’s overall performance, success, and ROI. An employee timesheet app is a great way to gauge employee performance and their daily work-level contribution to the organization.

Tracking employees’ tasks has always been there. Conventionally, employees had to make an entry into a logbook or on paper, and submit it to their superior on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. And, then, the superior or employer had to go through a bulky stack of such documents to gauge the individual performances. With this conventional approach, employers didn’t have a holistic view of their entire workforce and needed to put in extra effort to derive performance reports, for payroll and performance appraisal management. However, technological advancements and breakthrough innovations have paved the way for the introduction of robust, resilient, and scalable timesheet applications – desktop and mobile Apps. We will be discussing the significance of a timesheet app briefly and the 8 key features to look out for in an employee timesheet app.

What is Employee Timesheet Software/App?

An employee timesheet software or app is a tech-enabled solution that is intended to capture the employees’ daily contribution in an automated manner, which can be later leveraged to derive employee performance-related insights for payroll management among others. Apart from keeping a log of the employees’ clock-in, clock-out, and daily tasks, this application also records the time spent by employees on individual projects, how long they were active/idle, and also pulls out daily/weekly/monthly activity reports.

An employee timesheet app helps employees record/save daily work, submit them to their superiors for review, categorize their daily activities under the billable/non-billable umbrella, and derive task/project-level contributions. As this is a software/app, employees have greater flexibility in editing their entries without much ado. It is definitely an easy, quick, and hassle-free way to record their contributions.

At the same time, employers also stand to benefit immensely from the best timesheet app. It will take them just a few clicks to navigate through the task records of their entire workforce and a few minutes too. It is definitely an effective method of capturing the holistic performance of their organization and they can derive analytics and reports on the go.

Considering the plethora of benefits of an employee timesheet app, the market is flooded with a wide array of solutions. And, thus, organizations must weigh their options judiciously, anticipate their current and future needs, and make informed decisions.

Here are the 8 features that organizations must look out for.

Top 8 Features to Look Out For in an Employee Timesheet App

Automated Time Tracking – Time tracking is essential from both the employee and employer standpoint. But that does not mean both parties have to endure the hassles of manual, cumbersome, and time-inefficient time tracking. Organizations when weighing their options must look for the automated time tracking feature in the best timesheet app. The timesheet app should let the employee record his daily tasks, stop/resume the timers, and even block specific slots for respective tasks for better planning of the day.

Offline Tracking – Given the new normal conditions, now most of the workforce is either working from home or remotely where they might not have a stable internet connection. At such a juncture, the timesheet app should function in offline mode to allow the employees to record their daily activities even if they are offline. The app should allow offline and online sync so that all the activities are appropriately recorded.

Holistic Project Overview – In today’s time where multitasking prevails and is a must, employees are engaged in multiple projects at multiple levels. So, it is the need of the hour that the timesheet app should efficiently record and visually represent the employees’ contribution in each project at different phases, and intervals so that employers can obtain a holistic view of employee-project details. This will also help employers decide whether more work needs to be allocated to an employee or a project needs extra resources. This will help strike a healthy equilibrium in the organization.

Break Reminders – Yes, the timesheet app should ideally have this feature. In the quest to get the tasks done on priority, employees might not get a chance to take a break. Break reminders alert them that they should straighten out. Breaks are essential not only for the employee’s well-being but also for their productivity.

Invoicing – Most organizations have the bill/hour pricing and invoice model with their clientele. In such a case, the timesheet app must be able to record and differentiate between billable and non-billable tasks and hours so that it is helpful for both the employee and employer. Organizations can raise precise invoices based on the billable tasks without having the need to identify them manually, which could be erroneous.

Analytics and Reporting – The best employee timesheet app must have robust analytics and reporting features as it is essential for both employees and the organization. Employees must be able to derive an actionable report about their contribution towards their tasks, projects, and the organization’s overall commitment. Similarly, organizations should be able to attain SMART reports pertaining to employee contributions, overall project performance, and delivery timelines.

Integration – Integration is a highly desired feature whenever there is a need for the introduction of a new application into the organization’s system. The new application (here, the timesheet app) should be capable of seamlessly being integrated into the existing systems of an organization be it the SharePoint environment or the payroll system.

Native App – In today’s fast-paced life, smartphones have become indispensable in all walks and spheres of life. Be it information assimilation, certain work-related activities, or ordering products online or for entertainment purposes, smartphones have become constant companions. The employee timesheet app should be available on both desktop and mobile devices with suitable versions. This is ideal for the multi-device-using gen-Z employees.

How Ignatiuz Can Help

Ignatiuz has been instrumental over the years in providing cutting-edge, pragmatic, robust, and scalable tech solutions for organizations to assist them in their sustenance and growth journey. The Office 365 timesheet software, the best timesheet app, is another tech-enabled solution that aims at productively tracking hours spent by employees on all tasks under different projects within the business SharePoint environment.

Ignatiuz’s Office 365 Timesheet software is available in standard, professional, and enterprise versions with varying features. Some of the key features include:

  • Enables organizations to create unlimited projects and tasks within the secure SharePoint environment and is highly scalable
  • Helps employees record their daily tasks, modify them if needed before submitting them as a weekly report to their superiors. Indeed an easy, quick, and hassle-free manner of time tracking!
  • Available for Android and iOS platforms
  • Helps employers review and approve employees’ digital timesheets on-the-go
  • Enables the segregation of billable and non-billable tasks/hours for client invoicing, employee payroll management, and performance appraisals
  • Ensures data security within the SharePoint environment
  • Timesheets can be exported into Excel/CSV/PSD formats
  • Power BI Integration

Intrigued to explore more about timesheet applications? Connect with the experts at Ignatiuz today!